WHEN I WAS a young reporter, ageism was a faraway notion which didn’t apply to me. Now I’m older and, perhaps, wiser, I see things more clearly.

The changing jobs market is borne out by the stories pouring into The Journal today from readers who have experienced the sharp edges of ageism as they look for employment in their 50s, an outpouring prompted by the experience of former Elle editor turned jobseeker, Stacey Duguid, as related on her social media.

Duguid, 53, spoke about her experience of sending 150 applications but receiving no response from 150 prospective employers, which is a shocking indictment of these firms for their lack of basic courtesy and overreliance on AI.

Employers seem to think that they hold all the cards; after all, they could, for instance, devolve the work they envisage their new employee would be carrying out to an AI agent.

Older and wiser?

I am now 59 and will be celebrating my sixtieth birthday shortly. My experience with ageism doesn’t come close to that suffered by Duguid, but I have felt it.

The most recent brush with it came earlier this year. My current contract is coming to an end in August and, anxious to ensure future employment, I had responded to an advertisement with a former employer in the expectation that I would at least get an invitation to an interview. We had parted on good terms in the past.

The letter from the HR executive was to the point:

Thank you for your recent application for the role of News Reporter in the XXXXX.

Unfortunately, you have been unsuccessful on this occasion. We have moved ahead with another candidate who has a slightly different skill set more suited for the planned role.

While I understand you will be disappointed on this occasion, please feel free to apply for any further roles advertised that may interest you.

Kind regards,

XXXXX

That letter gave the impression that I had actually been called for an interview and, after the conclusion of that process, this was the outcome.

That wasn’t the case. There was no interview.

The other observation I made from reading the letter was the point about “another candidate who has a slightly different skill set”.

I immediately read that as codology.

After all, I had the required skills and experience to fill the role of news reporter – a nose for a story and the tools to dig it out and write it to length and within a deadline.

My own interpretation of that line was that it didn’t refer as much to skills as to age. A subsequent career update from the reporter who was hired confirmed to me, it seemed, that age was a factor, as the successful candidate was a hire from a graduate programme with very little actual journalistic experience.

I suspect, too, in cases like these, and in media in particular, that the numbers of followers a young journalist has on certain social media platforms will also serve to push that candidate ahead of an older, more experienced one, such is the blind deference of news organisations to social media metrics these days. Being a good ‘content creator’ is not the same thing as being a good news reporter. But that’s possibly a topic for another article. 

All I can say is, I wish that person all the best for a long career in journalism. But it’s a bitter pill to swallow after so many years in the sector. After this, the notion that I would apply for any further roles that this company would advertise seems fanciful at this stage, but then again, let’s not rule anything out.

That one negative experience is, however, outweighed by mostly positive outcomes in my job seeking over the years. My current role is my thirteenth job during a 30-year career, and I have happy memories from each one of those positions, the work done and the friendships with former colleagues.

A successful job application this year means I will have a 14th first day at work in September. During the interview for that job, it was I who brought up the question of my age. I told my interviewers that my lengthy career meant that I had made all the mistakes that I could think of, and they would benefit from my experience and extensive contacts.

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Calling out ageism

I don’t regard every rejection for a job as evidence of ageism; that would be foolish. Every workplace has its own requirements. But, on this occasion, the suspicion that I was being cast aside was strong. And it stung. 

And I suspect, in a changing jobs market, one that is being upended by AI as we speak, I am not alone. The reason Stacey Duguid’s post went viral is that she struck a chord. She tapped into a growing anxiety for those of us who, up until recently, were considered the lucky ones, the ones who left college, joined the workforce, did ‘what they were told’, followed the path, and, if lucky, bought houses, had families, all of it.

It was Gen Z we felt sorry for. The path wasn’t as clear for them. Yes, there were jobs, but maybe fewer homes, less security. Now, if our generation is being bypassed for Gen Z, then how long before everyone is bypassed for AI? 

I have no notion of pursuing legal action for ageism in this instance. I rationalised the rejection in terms of money. The company which hired a much younger and less experienced candidate could offer that person a lower salary, and with that too, that person would be, perhaps, more malleable by news editors than an older hand.

Nowadays, potential is valued more than experience and already acquired skills. When I started off in journalism, it was the other way around; it seemed to me.

The new role I’m going to is with a company for which I first applied in 1996, 29 years ago. I was rejected for that role and subsequently got a job in Belfast, where I met my wife, my children were born and where I met and made my closest friends.

I also had an adventure of a lifetime, becoming the editor of Ireland’s first Irish language daily newspaper, Lá.

That early rejection was the making of me.

Were it not for that letter telling me my application was unsuccessful, who knows where I would be now?

So for now, we take it on the chin, but hope that employers shift a ways back to valuing substance over style. 

Concubhar Ó Liatháin is a reporter with The Journal. The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme